The game theoretically correct move is to keep doing what you’re doing: given the opportunity, you should always shift things in your preferred direction, because the other side’s going to do it, too.

Why do we believe that winning this game is not itself defection in an unseen Prisoners’ Dilemma? Isn’t a Congress with a 19% approval rating a tragedy of the commons, and isn’t Trump the payoff? There are games within games, and it is risky to try to analyze the strategies inside a box if the result can be felt outside the box.